Friday, 6 May 2011

Yesterday I spotted a whooping bag (almost 1.3 kg) of red chillies for quick sale at the Chinese supermarket for a mere £3. The chillies were a little off their best, slightly wrinkly but still looking pretty good. I have to take the lot home, too good to leave it. What a bargain! I always buy chilli sauce because fresh red chillies are quite expensive over here around £10/kg normal price, it does not make economical sense to make my own. Having bought this bag of chillies I was excited to make a batch of chilli sauce again.

This chilli sauce recipe is really simple, just need a liquidiser to blitz, boil and bottle. The sauce is similar to sriracha sauce.

If the chillies are mild you can add some hot chilli powder or boost it with some bird's eye chillies or scotch bonnet. Taste the chillies first before adding super hot chillies or chilli powder. Also bear in mind the ginger will also give a good bite of heat.

Pectin or gelatin helps the sauce to thicken or set. If you don't like to add this boil the sauce for longer to reduce.

Over here in UK, pectin powder (Silver spoon brand) is available from Morrisons, Asda and Coop. Waitrose has Tate & Lyle brand

Method:

Remove chilli stalks, slit open and remove most the seeds but leave the white pith (this white pith is packed with heat) and cut into small chunks. Leave the seeds on is fine if your liquidiser is powerful enough to ground the seeds. .

Peel and cut ginger into small chunks

Depending on the size of your liquidiser, blend the chilli and ginger in 2 - 3 batches. Divide the vinegar and add this to the chilli and ginger before blending.

Blitz to a smooth puree. Smoother the puree smoother the resulting chilli sauce.

Pour into a large pot.

Mix sugar, salt and pectin/gelatin together. Add this to the blended chilli.

Boil at medium to low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring most of the time. Do watch the mixture. If it starts to boil it will bubble rapidly and spit red sauce all over the cooking area. If you like to take a short break from stirring, cover with a lid ajar.

When the mixture has thickened like thick tomato soup it is ready.

While the sauce is boiling prepare the bottles or jars. Clean, sterilise and dry the jars/bottles. I boiled used jam jars and lids then dried in a warm oven.

Fill the chilli sauce while it is still hot into hot/warm jars/bottles. A jam jar funnel (also need to sterilise) makes the job easier. Screw on the lids right away. Once cooled a vacuum will form inside the jar making it air tight sealed.

This sauce will keep for a long time in a cool and dark cupboard up to a year if jars/bottles are properly sterilised and sealed.

I tried this recipe last nite from chillis picked fresh from my garden. I used apple cidar and followed the mentioned method. To my great dissappointment the sauce is so very bitter. Could you please explain what would have been wrong. I have 3 full bottles of bitter chilli sauce.:(